Petshark: Talking Stick

The Sharks recalled Matt Pelech again, and placed James Sheppard on IR. That last is based on the Sharks' online roster, which I'm not sure I can rely on. Tim Kennedy has gone missing from that same roster, but maybe he wasn't there to begin with. I haven't been checking closely. I only checked today to find out why they needed Pelech again. Kennedy isn't on today's AHL transactions list so he could be anywhere except in the AHL. I like to think it's a webmaster omission, because without him the Sharks only have twelve forwards available and that's not great. There's so much that isn't great in Shark territory right now, it is only natural that injuries would pile on.

Sometimes you *#$%@& up. Sometimes that's all that happens, you hardly notice it happened. Other times, you *#$%@& up and all the bad things that could happen slam you from behind like a twenty car pile-up. Those cars are full of your past mistakes, the missed steps and continuing shortcomings. Way in the back, there's a minivan carrying other people's issues. They're screaming bloody murder over damage to their Aerostar, because it's just one of those times.

I usually lie there under the wreckage for a long while before I remember my serenity prayer, find my feet, and start putting one in front of the other. At such times, even my B game would feel like a gold star success. I think Nabokov had one of those days today. I think the Sharks have had some days like that recently, but they're not like me. If they were, they wouldn't be professional athletes.

I'm trying to gather evidence of this secret mental resilience that should be made available to all, maybe in a pill. It's slow going, because the existing texts are all in a language foreign to me. For example:

@Jon_Allred: MJ said @ his HOF speech, "Dont b surprised if u c me playing @ age 50. Never say never because limits like fears r often just an illusion."

I mean, who really thinks that? I can't believe it is as simple as the fearlessness I had as a child, which I attribute primarily to ignorance.

So the Sharks lost seven. The next landmark loss would be the tenth, which could trigger Roster Armageddon... or not. It could get Todd McLellan fired, presumably to be replaced by Larry Robinson, who has said he doesn't want the job. It could aggravate the newly more major majority owner, Hasso Plattner, who has said he won't interfere with hockey operations.

So they say. People often say one thing and mean another, or say one thing now and mean another later. The thing is, you can't assume someone means anything other than what they have said, at least until they have gone on record as liars. Doug Wilson has been very good at not contradicting future actions with present promises, but his statement that the answers to this slump are in that room isn't a stretch. While it could include somebody in the room going to some other room, I'd bet he gives them time to right the ship.

After all, they're still even with seven wins and seven losses. I just hope they don't wait for the streak to reach eight before they crawl out from under the wreckage.

About Petshark: Talking Stick

Native of Northern California. Hockey fan since 1998... sort of... there's a hiatus in there that I still can't explain.

I want to know about anything and everything related to the sport and the spectacle. I watch, I react, I write it down.

My interest in the Sharks was initially a matter of geographic convenience and regional loyalty because that seemed to be how it worked. I had no prior interest (at all-- AT ALL) in professional sports of any kind. When I met hockey, it might have set off a chain reaction of general sports fandom. It hasn't, I don't think it will. At all.

Since then, that interest developed into full blown (mostly sort of usually almost completely) exclusive loyalty to the Sharks.

I started blogging a couple years ago on wordpress. I still occasionally put things there that I don't think fit here because they are not about the Sharks. Wherever my words wander, here on Kuklas Korner, they will (usually) hang on to a teal thread.

I can be found in cyberspace on Twitter @petshark47, or emailed at talkingstick@petshark.net